As soon as she got Nolan into his car seat, her phone rang. “Hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“Hey, sweetie! I was wondering if it would be okay if I took Nolan for ice cream when you two are done at the zoo.”

Blair looked at her watch. It was starting to get kind of late, so she wasn’t sure how Erin would feel about that. “Let me call Erin and ask her. If she says it’s cool, I’ll bring him to your house.”

Blair said goodbye to her mom and called Erin next. It took her longer than usual to answer, but right before Blair was expecting it to go to voicemail, she did. “Hey! Everything okay?” Her voice sounded chipper, giving Blair the impression that she wasn’t actually worried.

“Oh yeah. Everything is great. Super random, but my mom just called me to ask if she could take Nolan for ice cream. Are you okay with that?”

“Of course! That sounds wonderful.”

There was something off about Erin’s voice, but Blair couldn’t figure out what it was. “Okay. Awesome. I’ll bring him to your house after we go.”

“Oh.” Erin sounded disappointed. “You’re, um, going to go with them?”

“I figured that made the most sense. Then I can just bring him back to your house once we’re done.”

“Oh, um, yeah. Of course. Have fun.”

There was definitely something weird going on, but now that Nolan had heard the word ice cream, he was shouting at Blair about it, so she couldn’t ask Erin what was up.

As soon as they arrived at her house, Blair’s mom walked out carrying her car keys. She wiggled them in front of Blair. “Since the car seat is already in your car, you take my car to Erin’s, and I’ll bring him over there once we’re done.”

“You don’t want me to come with you?” This situation keeps getting weirder and weirder.

“No. Your father is coming. We’re looking forward to spending time with a child who doesn’t speak back to us.” Blair’s mom gave her a playful smile and wink.

“Good luck with that.” Blair laughed and pointed to Nolan. “This one’s worse than me.”

“I highly doubt that.” Blair’s mom smiled lovingly at Nolan, then looked back at Blair. “Now, stop worrying. Go have fun.”

Why did her mom have that twinkle in her eye when she told her to have fun? Were Erin and her mom conspiring? There was no way, right?

Blair drove to Erin’s house as fast as she could without having to worry about being pulled over. Here! she texted before shutting off the car and getting out.

Awesome. Door is unlocked. Come in.